Class. Book. J^-H- bMi^ COKRIGHT DEPOSm SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. ODDS AND ENDS OF ANECDOTE AND EARLY DOINGS, Gathered from Manuscripts, Pamphlets, and Aged Eesidents. bt mason a. green. SPRINGFIELD, MASS.: WHITNEY & ADAMS. 1876. U'h^ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by MASON A. GREEN, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Clark W. Bryan & Co., Publishers, Printers and Binders Springfield, Mass. ■> '^nbxcaieb SAMUEL BOWLES, Foe whose Journal these Sketches were originally prepared. There is no attempt at completeness in these sketches of Old Springfield. The waj-side inn, with its story-teller and flavor of flip, no longer gathers a nightly company, and the historian will he hard taxed to restore the picture. But the "oldest inhabitant" has been interviewed against his coming, and the results, printed in the Spriw/field Republican during the past year, are now brought together in these bric-a-brac pages. Springfield, Mass., Dec. 1st, 1876. INDEX. CHAtTEK. PAGE. I. Speingfield Village in 1776, .... 9 II. Old Time Bric-a-brac, . . . . .26 III. Flip Days in Springfield, 39 IV. Springfield Trade Half a Century Ago. . . 42 V. The Old Mechanics' Association, . . .51 VI. Migration of the Frogs, 59 VII. Court Square and the Elms, . . . .62 VIII. Early Sights and Scenes, 68 IX. The Breck Controversy, 82 X. Fashions and Things, 96 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. CHAPTER I. SPEINGFIELD VILLAGE IN 1776. The visitor to the village of Springfield, in 1776, standing at the corner of Main street and Ferry lane (Cypress street) — at that time the business center — would have in view, down the west side of the street, most of its one hundred and seventy-five houses, and the solitary church spire, with pasture land running back to the river. On the east side were a mountain brook, a narrow strip of wet grass land, (" hasseky marish ") — as often a pond as a meadow — and an elm and oak-fringed forest of pine, rising into a broad plateau. To the right, on the narrow vista of river, could be seen the ferryman's flat scow, " set over with poles," either bringing grain and hay from West Springfield, or taking back groceries. Up and down the street walked the old merchants in knee-breeches, and the younger and gayer in scarlet coats, with per- chance a passing slave, or wigged magistrate, or plain 10 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. housewife carrying water from the brook across the way. With a little luck, too, one might have heard the sound of rifle up on the plain, (Armory Hill), where a venturous deer had browsed, or even an occa- sional stage- horn from the " Bay Path," before the coach entered from Boston over the marsh by a nar- row corduroy causeway, (State street). In her then one hundred and thirty years of history, the village had grown but little, and her territory, as she entered the Revolution, had been greatly reduced. Her children plantations of West Springfield, Southwick, Westfield, Sufheld, Enfield and Somers, had, one by one, set up for themselves, though Springfield still cherished Longmeadow and Chicopee Falls, and sus- tained her claim of being; the hub of all Western Massachusetts. • Strolling down toward the big elm, the most prom- inent and uninviting building in architecture and loca- tion w^as the Court-house, built fifty-five years before. It stood, square and ill-mannerly, out into the road, (at the head of Sanford street), over, or perhaps be- yond the brook, and in front of it was a whipping- post. Executions used to be in public, and on gal- lows almost as high as Haman's, so that it could be seen at a great distance. The whipping-post was also al- ways prominently situated ; and from the external rigidity of Puritans, a traveling A^oltaire might call the whipping-post a very good statue in wood of New England's god. A little to the south, in front of SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 11 H. & J. Brewer's drug store, was an elm, used also for a whipping-post. The late Daniel Lombard used to tell how he pitied the unfortunates whom he saw stripped, and publicly flogged there. Back of the present old Town hall on State street, was a new brick school-house, costing £117. Across the way, eighteen feet north of the large elm on the Common, rose the famous tavern of Zenas Parsons, which had a fearfully high, wing on Main street (when afterward detached dubbed the " Light house,") and barns and sheds along Meet- ing-house lane, (Elm street). Beyond the sheds, stand- ing partly on Elm street, and partly on the south-west corner of the present Court Square, stood the church, holding on the finger of its steeple the same golden rooster that to-day wags his thin tail in all weathers. The ground back to the river was open pasture and meadow land. There was a pair of bars across Meet- ing-house lane by the church, and, at a later day, and presumedly at this time, passers leaving the bars down were fined. This lane led through th^e burying- ground and adjoining training field to the middle landing. It wasn't an accident that the latter field was so near the grave-stones. Training was a sacred duty, always opened with prayer, and continued to the beat of the same drum that called them to Sab- bath service. Along the river bank was a path pro- tected by a town law, each fence having a gate with a post set in the middle, to check the cattle. The church, at this time some twenty-five years 12 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. old, was sixty feet by forty-six, with a tower on the lane, but the main entrance toward the east. The seats were square and the pnlpit high, extending over the deacon seats, which faced the congregation. Above was a ponderous sounding-board, and nervous people used to fear, during sermon time, that it would fall into the pulpit, and that on to the deacons below. The old box pews and high pulpits have their origin in the English churches, which have pulpits of such altitudes as to tax the neck, even, of a high churchman, to look at them. The deacon's hat is spoken of by old people as a pecuhar insignia of office, which, with his powdered hair, made him look venerable enough. The broad galleries held as many as the body seats, and in a back and high corner, nearest the shingles, the colored people took their religion, which may suggest the origin of our " nigger heaven." The deacons, at this time, were Nathaniel Brewer, son of the former minister, and, as a carpen- ter, often employed in church repairs, Daniel Harris, and probably Moses Bliss, who certainly was four years later. Judge Bliss was not less distinguished for his sterling parts and godliness, than for his eccen- tricities. He wore a powdered wig, knee-breeches, low shoes and shining buckles. They say that he first heard of the Declaration of Independence as he touched the wharf from West Springfield with a load of hay ; and, not being able to elevate his continental heels and cocked hat high enough, he at once set fire SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 13 to the hay, amid the unlimited enthusiasm of every- body. This sort of originahty ran in the family, and probably from his father, Jedidiah, they were called " Jedites," and to be odd or " singularly gaited," was to be "jeddy." But individuality was in the line of local things. The elder Pynchon had come to the Connecticut, one hundred and thirty years before, where he could get beaver skins and have his religion free. Of skins there were plenty ; but they burned his book on Boston Common, and he was " jeddy " enough to return to England. John Hitchcock, of the Wilbraham church, was a strongly individualized dea- con. He was, physically, the most remarkable man of his time, and his churchly decorum did not prevent him, on one occasion, from running a race with a horse, ten miles into the village, and getting there first! But Hampden Park was not. Horses have since gone up, and deacons down ; and there probably now is not a deacon in Western Massachusetts who can beat the time made at the fall races. Twenty- five years before, the Chinese wall through the con- gregation, dividing males and females, was broken down, but it took all the wisdom the selectmen and deacons could command to assign the seats, '' either higher or lower as they should judge most meete." The meeting-house was not warmed, in those days, and the preacher often pointed to the ceiUng with his big, worsted mitten, while the women used foot- stoves, and everybody else knocked heel against heel. ^^ SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. Entering Main street again, a little north of Zenas Parsons', was another tavern, where Tinkham's store now is, kept by Moses Church. He was afterward, if not at this time, postmaster, his office being across the way, back of the brook, and on the border of the meadow. Deacon Daniel Harris' house came next, with a lot, like all his neighbors, extending to the river; and next Daniel Lombard, on the south corner of Pjnchon and Main streets ; then the deputy sher- iff, William Pynchon, Jr., where the Haynes House now IS, and his brother, John, father-in-law of the kte Henry Brewer, across the way, which was the last bmldmg on that side for over a mile, or to Carew street. Rev. Robert Breck occupied the parsonage, the site of Fallon's block. He was then in the forty- first year of his ministry, which, beginning in an ec- clesiastical war over his orthodoxy, ripened through a long period of peace in the church and noise of war without. Beyond the Parsons property, (the Justin Lombard site,) was the Worthington tavern, near the north corner of Bridge and Main. Lieutenant Wor- thington had died, two years before, and his son, who IS known as the Hon. John Worthington, had suc- ceeded to the estate, and become one of the old " River Gods." Among his many distinctions is that of bemg the first Springfielder who carried an um- brella, for the sun, however, instead of the rain. He didn't burn many tons of hay out of love for the rebels. He was, indeed, called a rank tory, and his en- SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 15 ero-etic gymnastics toward Philadelphia about this time, gave color to the charge. But the village, in the end, came to love him in spite of his haughty bearing, and he did good service as a member of the govern- or's council, and at other posts of duty. The colonel closed the tavern, but it was opened again during the war of 1812 ; and at the news of the peace, Elijah Goodrich, who then kept it, treated a procession of citizens to toddy, dealing it out in pails. When the western road was opened, Charles Stearns moved it back to the corner of Worthington and Water streets, where he had an old-fashioned house-warming, with peat burning in the grates. The Pynchon family owned from a point near the Worthington tavern, to Ferry lane (Cypress street). Edward, the register of deeds, who died the following year, probably lived in the old fortified brick house, on the site of Fort block, which has been much written about, — one of the three that sheltered the women and children and few men, when King Philip's warriors burned the town, one hun- dred years before. George Pynchon was near by, on the Goodrich block site, and Doctor Charles Pynchon was on the corner of Main street and Ferry lane. The latter's block contained an apothecary's store, Sweeney's tailor, and other shops, and was in the bus- iness center. On the other corner w^as Zebina Steb- bins' establishment. He was a person of considerable enterprise and note, his name often appearing in the old records, and is deserving of our gratitude for his 16 SPEINGFIELD MEMORIES. share, in company with Festus and Joseph Stebbins, in the planting and watering of the ehns in the cen- ter of North Main street. Nathaniel Brewer lived on the river bank, at the foot of the lane. He was a prominent man, and, as chairman of the town com- mittee of correspondence, gave Colonel Worthington a certificate of good character against the charge of toryism. Continuing in the line of this attenuated town was the Hitchcock house, (Emery street), Jo- seph Stebbins, (Clinton and Main), Moses and Captain Thomas Stebbins, and, finally. Major Joseph Stebbins' new tavern, (Carew street,) which had in front of it a large round ball for a sign. During the Revolution, a pay-master placed a large sum of continental money with the major, but never returned to claim it, and it was kept untouched until worthless from deprecia- tion. Captain Thomas Stebbins had just started a pottery opposite his premises, on the east side of the street, bringing his clay from Long Hill. Returning again to the " Causeway," (State street,) we find J. & J. Dwight keeping store in a smallish red house, fitted up for the purpose, on the corner where is now the Savings Bank building. During the war this became the largest store in this part of the State. One of the "Js" is Jonathan. He had come to Springfield in 1753, and was emphatically an old-time gentleman. Doctor Albert Booth says of him : " He was a great smoker, lighting his pipe in summer with a burning-glass, and described by many who remem- SPEINGFIELD MEMORIES. 17 ber him, as often crossing tlie street in such a cloud of smoke, as to be nearly invisible. He was almost the last representative of the silk-stocking, short- breeches, and silver shoe-buckle gentry, — rather scant clothing, the boys thought, who knew of his practice of going out to fodder the cows before daylight or breakfast, cold winter mornings, with stockings down about his heels, and rubbing his legs when he came, in, to get up a circulation, as he said." As the fash- ions changed to pantaloons, there was much discussion as to whether they were as durable as knee-breeches. New England always debates the utility of things, and knee-breeches did not escape the trial. The stockings were thick, and wore for a long time, espe- cially the silk ones. It was strenuously maintained by the older people that pantaloons were a great deal more costly than small-clothes. Mr. D wight was a slave-holder to the extent of one African, and lived across the way, where Whitney & Adams now are, in one of the very few painted houses of the village. At an early day, a causeway of logs had been built across the marsh, now State street, and was sustained by toll. The road was narrow at the causeway, be- came wider on the meadow, and was laid out twenty rods wide on the hill. Passino; the old Dwio-ht home- stead, on the west corner of State and Maple streets, and seven or eight houses further up, it ran through the woods to the " Bay Path," (corner of State and Wal- nut streets), where Joseph Wait, of Brookfield, had 18 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. put up a large red sandstone guide-post, thirteen years before. This, as now can be seen, he did after a nar- row escape from death in taking the Skipmuck, in- stead of the Boston road, during a storm. Armory Hill was a pine plain, with an occasional patch of oak undergrowth, and nearer the " hasseky marish," back of the library building, stood a fine oak grove, with sentinel elms on the outskirts, among silver and white poplars and willows. The many and clear springs kept the marsh from stagnation, and gave all the fertility and warmth, without the miasma of the lowlands. Opposite the Dwight store, (Webber's corner), was the house of Luke Bliss, a man of fine presence and courtly manners, a representative at the General Court, and leader of the village choir. He and his brother owned most of the land between the present Watershops and the Armory. On the corner of Meeting-house lane and Main street, was a wooden store and dwelling-house owned by Moses Bliss, a shoemaker. The property came into the hands of the Lombard family eleven years later. Below Jonathan Dwight's house was a dwelling, where Homer Foot & Co. now are, which, in 1800, became Bates' tavern. Then came the Collins homestead, the Moses Bliss place, and the " old gaol " tavern, partly on the Union House site, the log '•' gaol " being in the rear. This gloomy, colonial lock-up was furnished with heavy shackles and stocks, and clumsy padlocks. Below this (north corner of Howard and Main streets), was the SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 19 old Josiali Dwight house, (he was the other and the older "J" in the Dwight firm), and, across the way, (the D. A. Bush place), his distillery, and a building put up for a store. Scattered along on the river side were the houses of Ely, Warner, (Mrs. P. F. Wilcox's), Jedidiah Bliss, father of Moses, (south of William street), Joseph Ferre, — the man who once said, prob- ably in town meeting, " John Worthington rules this town with a rod of iron," — Loring, Burt, Caleb Ferre and Coole}^, (L. H. Taylor's), with the Sikesand Reu- ben Bliss places on the other side. Twenty-five years earlier, there were but seven houses on State street and four on Maple, and there is no evidence that it had changed much before 1776. The elm on Elijah Blake's place is known to be ninety years old, and was planted after a house had been built there by one Stebbins. It is not hazardous to say that this and a house on each side, which were as old, were standing in 1776, and further up on the other side, were three or four small houses of about the same age, which will account for the buildings on the " Causeway." Maple street, in the early papers called " the road to Charles BreSver's," had been put through to the foot of '' Thompson's Dingle," (now the cemetery). A house of correction on this road was burned, one hundred years before. Of the four houses standing here in 1776, were those of Charles Brewer, near Mr. Rumrill's residence, which was a large house, commanding a good view of the long 20 SPKINGFIELD MEMORIES. town street that slept on the river bank ; and two small houses near by (Lombard Dale's), occupied by Sol Ferre and his sisters, Lizzie and Martha. The street stopped short a little beyond Brewer's, but was continued, in a well-trodden footpath, down to the Dwight distillery on South Main street. The street ran to the west of the present line and of these houses along the brow of the hill. When the road was straightened, the out-buildings were compli- mented with a position in the front yard. Misses Liz- zie and Martha, at the beginning of the century, were white-haired women, and were the terror of the third and fourth generation thereabouts ; for, over the brow of the hill, the sweet flag and mint grew in abund- ance, and, waiting till the maids, who carefully watched the place, were away, they would gather the flag ; but it often happened, to their grief, that the owners would put in a sudden appearance. In 1776, the population of the village was prob- ably 1,200. It was used during the Revolution as a center of supplies, for which the first government buildings were put up on the Hill, naturally giving the place an impetus, though as late as 1791 it numbered but 1,574. The town brook, by the by, had its own way in those days. In the first place, it performed the curious feat of splitting itself right in two, and running both north and south, and then, in times of rain, it would try to shove itself all down either SPRIHEri£LDVlUAG£ SPRmGFIELD MEMORIES. 23 the one or the other of these channels ; or, per- haps, it would fill up the marsh so that a boat could be rowed from the Causeway to Stebbins' new tavern, (Carew street). But it always had under its banks the finest trout to be found for many a mile. Even in this century, lazy anglers have fished from shop Avindows, through the grating of plank and logs across it, and with good luck. But these were initu- tored times, and it is now doing good in the world by cleaning sewers. There exists, so far as is known, no map of Springfield in 1776. The accompanying plan of the village locates the important buildings as indi- cated by manuscript and tradition ; and, if there be added a reasonable number of out-buildings, and such minor houses as must have escaped record, a good idea of old Springfield can be obtained. As to .dress, a century ago, there was much color, especially on the male side. We have records of brown velvet and white jackets, snuff-colored, light blue worsted and scarlet coats, and buckskin breeches. A Springfield slave, who lived a few years later, is de- scribed as having a blue coat with white metal but- tons. In fact, our ordinary country gentleman spent more money in dress than his lady, who could get a grand bonnet for six shillings, while he paid one pound for his hat. Savages had already become so scarce, that when a company of Stockbridge Indians passed through Springfield for Roxbury, at the com- mencement of the war, they were counted a curios- 24 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. ity. It was still the day of fire-places, though one or two families may have enjoyed the luxury of the new-fangled box stove, weighing seven hundred pounds, with a fire under the oven, and a boiler-hole in the oven bottom. The plow of one hvmdred years ago was not a?sthetically remarkable. It is known as the " bull plow," and was ordinarily made of wood, except the wrought iron share. The standard was verti(;al, and attached to it was the sole piece and beam. The clevis hung on the nose of the beam, which extended forward, and rested on a two-wheeled cart drawn by animals. The wooden mould-board was sometimes plated with sheet-iron or strips of hammered horse-shoes. Springfield was never blind to progressive ideas. There were already in this community of 1,200 souls, — hardly a tolerable crowd for the City Hall, — five taverns, and, besides, there had been one execution six years before. The familiar picture of a solemn New England Sabbath, begun in the morning by the rooster's " crowing psalm tunes," and ending at sun- down, when the children played blind-man's-buff in the streets, and young men drank flip at the taverns, is as true of Springfield as of Northampton. The dignified progress of the judiciary, which met alter- nately here and at Northampton, was enough to melt the most incorrigible malefactor. The judges ap- proached the Court-house, preceded by the high sher- iff, bearing a long rod; and, while the Court-house SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 25 bell rang out its homage, the line of cocked hats and long queues moved with dignity to the bench. But the troubles with England had reached a crisis, and, in 1776, men took off the ruffles about their wrists and sold them for powder, Springfield as heart- ily as all New England. CHAPTER II. OLD TIME BRIC-A-BEAC. Spkingfield village had its crop of strong, noble men, who could legislate or hold the plow, Avitli equal excellence. And perhaps no two of them had more of the homespun virtues and culture of the age, and less of mutual characteristic, than old John Worth- ington and Parson Howard. One w^as a tory b}^ na- ture, conservative, courtly and stern, to the last de- gree, yet with too much character not to yield when in the wrong, as was shown by his conversion to Re- publicanism. The other was a born liberalist, san- guine, progressive and undiplomatic. He once called a dear friend and prominent citizen a liar in a debate on slavery, and the fellow wasn't certain but the par- son was right, and swallowed it. Howard was per- sonally winning, and did not have that attending halo of touch-me-not, that marked Colonel Worthington. The latter was never anybody's grandfather to speak of. Children held their breath when he spoke, and the irreverent called him " don." He made he- roic efforts to impress his name and character on a SPKINGFIELD MEMOEIES. 27 male heir ; but he merely contributed three little tombstones to three infant " John Worthingtons." It was the other side of the house that was to hand down the high breeding of his family. This breeding took a peculiar form, sometimes. He once snatched a Butler's Analogy from the hands of a daughter whom he caught reading and sweeping the room at the same time, and said : " This is not a book for a girl to read." To be sure, she was only twenty-four ! He allowed no bed in the house to be made until after dark on Sundays. Abler men than he have lost the use of the hair on their heads, for interfering with such matters. There was a secret closet in his house, — not an uncommon thing in those days, — but he put it to the uncommon use of concealino; tories. It be- came a noted retreat for refugees, the father of the late Henry Sterns being among those who have hid in this historic cubby-hole. While the afterward distin- guished Fisher Ames was paying attention to the Colonel's daughter, Frances, it was his misfortune once to be asked to carve a turkey. The embryo congressman hadn't the sangfroid or skill to place the fork over the breast-bone, and, without removing it, to uncover all from white meat to bishop's nose. He squeezed, and sliced, and twisted the bird into such forbidding ligjmients, right before his girl's family, that he vowed to himself the " don " would never give him a chance to carve for a family of his own. In deep chagrin he posted to Boston, took carving les- 28 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. sons, and, on his return, found a goose in the platter, which he served most beautifully. "Mr, Ames," ob- served the " don," " you find a tough goose easier to carve than a tender turkey." Ames won his suit. AVhen John and Samuel Adams passed through the village on their way to the Continental Congress, Colonel Worthington asked in aloud voice, " Adamses, where are you going ? " "To Philadelphia, to declare these colonies free." " Gentlemen, beware ! " was the answer. " Look out for your heads ! " The Colonel was afterward glad enough to get his own head exposed in the same way, and he became a good friend of the colonies. Once Worthington's barn was struck by lightning, and Phillis, a negro slave woman of his, proceeded immediately to put on her best, including a bright red petticoat. Mrs. Worthington asked her in some as- tonishment what she was going to do. She replied : " De barn am struck. I think de day ob judgement am about to cum, and I want to 'pears well's I can before de Lord." Rev. Mr. Howard was as prominent in a progressive way as the Colonel in his conservatism, and his home rule as rigid. At five in the afternoon, at all seasons, every door in the house was " opened and swung," which let in lots of pure air and hard colds. When coal was first introduced, he gave it a trial before the assembled family. It was placed on the embers, and, as it did not burn, it was solemnly and once for all pro- SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 29 nounced stone. He and the Colonel, in 178G, had a characteristic bout on the subject of a bridge over the Connecticut. Howard remarked, " I believe, Colonel Worthington, I shall live to see a bridge across the Connecticut river." The quick reply was : " Par- son Howard, 3'ou talk like a fool." When it was byilt, the road to it passed through the Colonel's land. But in a curiosity shop, one often enjoys best what is of least value. One of the out-of-the-way stories told of Moses Bliss is, that one day he heard that a deer was browsing in ^' hasseky marish." Taking a flint-lock, he insinuated his knee-breeches among the bushes, a little back of the present Market street, where, sure enough, there was a veritable stag. As cool as a cucumber, he took aim, and holloed " bang " at the top of his voice. There was no bullet in his voice, and, as he forgot to shoot, the game escaped. Charles Brewer, who lived on Maple street, not far from the dingle, had a huge pear tree, after his own heart, on which he did the grafting and mulching, and sundry boys the harvesting. One day, seeing the lit- tle thieves approach, he bethought himself there was a hogshead near by where he could hide. The idea was too cute for anything, and he agilely crawled in. The boys saw him disappear, and had to stuff their elbows in their mouths to keep from laugliing. They crept up to the hogshead, and set it rolHng down the hill. For weeks, Mr. Brewer wore on his knees and elbows, the biggest knobs that ever were. 30 SPEINGFIELD MEMORIES. The father of Daniel Lombard, while at work on his Long-hill farm, once noticed through the corn a skulking Indian with drawn bow. He at once cocked his rifle, — then a vade-mecum. Both watched a chance to shoot, and neither dared uncover. After an ex- cited passage at this deadly game of peek-a-boo, the Indian backed out until he found shelter in the forest. It was a common amusement of the friendly Indi- ans, to take little children off in the morning, and return them at night to the frightened but non-resist- ant parents. A more civilized source of annoyance was thieving, and, along about 1830, in particular, the town was pestered with burglars, w^ho caused much hair and garment rending, until a party, under Elijah Blake, put a stop to it. Meeting back of the Armory, before daylight, one Sunday morning, they searched the woods, Blake and Whitefield Chapin coming upon the camp in a dismal ravine on the Chicopee road, known as " Hog-pen Dingle." Blake entered first, and found but two men, — Marcus R. Stephenson and George Ball. The latter fled, but the former, reaching for a weapon, Avas throttled by Blake. In the struggle the robber's pistol fell, and Blake was hurled down a bank with great force, but he recovered himself, and pur- sued Stephenson through the woods, till near enough to lay him flat with one fist blow. A¥itli the aid of Chapin, he w^as pinioned. Both robbers were subse- quently sentenced to state prison for life. They had SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 31 in their possession over seventy dollars in twenty and ten cent pieces, which they had taken, the night be- fore, from Ely's store at West Springfield. Twenty cent pieces were then plenty in Massachusetts, where they passed for their face value ; but in Connecticut they had depreciated to a shilling. A search in the house of Stephenson's father, corner of State and Oak streets, at which Major Edward Ingersoll was present, revealed that most of the stolen property was buried in the cellar. After twelve years behind the bars, Stephenson was pardoned out, and at once called on his old friend Blake, and had a good talk on old matters. During Shay's rebellion, Nathaniel Burt was taken prisoner by the West Springfield rebels, Luke Day and Alpheus Colton. Subsequently, w^hen Colton found himself in chains, and pretty near the gallows, he wrote Burt a penitent letter, never before in print, in which he says : " I try to bear up under the heavy load of mind that is upon me, but wish to God that I might be redeemed therefrom. In strict Justice I have merited death below, and Eternal death hereafter. I pray to be sav'd from the latter & that the former may not take place before I am prepared which I am not at present," He was spared, and for a very sin- gular fate, if tradition is to be trusted. It seems Burt had been subject to fits, but after being taken by the rebels they never came on again, and tradition saith that his captors had lots of 'em the rest of their d-dys. 32 SPEINGFIELD MEMORIES. The worst fit, though, was the one the negro "Jack" had. He was the husband of " Ginny," the slave woman whose freedom was bought from her master, Peter Van Geysehng, a Schenectady, N. Y., Dutch- man, by several citizens. " Jack " thought that at his time of life he ought to be the owner of a pair of boots. He had measurements taken, but, when done, he found they were no fit at all. He couldn't pull them on, as he had a trick of getting the heel in front. The maker he upbraided soundly. " Gor a sakes, Massa Gardner, you made 'em boots hind side afore." The original subscription list which was circulated by Daniel Lombard, for " Ginny's" freedom, is in the city library. One man refused to give anything, but, finding that his brother had, and that the money was about raised, repented and gave ten dollars. The Dutchman Avas so fearful that his slave would escape, that he sle|)t in her little hut, and a good punishment he got for it, too, if at all up in the finer feelings. After she had come down with the money and was handed her freedom papers, she got up a jubilee din- ner, and made him eat as much as ever he could. Zebina Stebbins and wife, who lived up on Ferry lane, (Cypress street,) used to ride to church o' Sun- days in a one-horse shay. One morning, the old peo- ple did not appear on time, and the horse walked off with his empty shay. Stopping religiously, for a mo- ment, at the church door, he passed to the shed, where he remained about as long as a Puritan sermon, and SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 33 then backed out, stojDped again at the doors of the church and his master's house, and returned to his stable. In those days, whosoever was intelhgent above his fellows, was " as smart as Zebina's horse," and was proud of it. When Mr. Stebbins was over- seer of the poor, he had half a dozen paupers who Avere so old and infirm that they would probably die at substantially the same time, and, in order to drive a cheap bargain, he proposed to buy their coffins all together, and use them for storage boxes until then ; but somebody objected, and he abandoned the idea. In the smaller places, like Springfield, it was an early custom to have one drinking mug on the table for water, and to pass it round. This was approach- ing the family tooth-brush nearer than the Knicker- bocker account of the lump of sugar pendant over the center of the table, where everybody with a good sugar tooth could get a convenient bite. It was a royal source of merriment among the young people of one of Springfield's first families, when the head of the family brought home a second wife, and she in- sisted on having a mug by herself. She was a New York Dutch bred lady, and could not come down to the one-mugged habits of the village. The staple bread was made of rye flour. Ordinarily, a man would buy a bushel or two of wheat, and have it ground. This was used for pastry, and would gener- ally last through the year. " Pop-robbin," a sort of milk porridge, was a great local dish ; and, at the time 34 SPKINGFIELD MEMORIES. of the Boston tea excitement, people substituted it in a lighter form, for tea. Mrs. Doctor Marble used to tell that, just after the war, she was invited out to breakfast (a better fashion than tea-parties), when she, for the first time in years, enjoyed a cup of tea ; but it didn't satisfy, and, on going home, she " filled up " with hot porridge. Certain women could not divorce themselves from their tea, and used to take it on the sly. On some, the suspicion of being secret tea-drinkers even loitered during the whole war. In the early part of this century, coffee was a luxury which few families enjoyed more than once a week. Burnt rye was used as a substitute, and was a common article of sale as late as 1822. The river was early filled with salmon, so that in seining for shad it was necessary to also take the sal- mon, strange as it may seem. At one time, the shad became a drug. A man was pretty "hard run who would eat shad." Foolishly enough, few people would admit that they ever lowered themselves to such depths. Indeed, they have even been known to snatch a shad from the pan, if a neighbor dropped in on them at odd times. A little later, one of the con- ditions in hiring a man was that he should eat shad so many times a week. Salmon, at the time of the Rev- olution, was called " Agawam pork," and it was a con- dition in buying shad, that a certain amount of this " Agawam pork " should be taken with it. Afterward, when fish were more scarce, it was customary to salt SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 35 down half a barrel of shad and a barrel of pork, every year. William Ames, in reminiscences he wrote thirty years ago, for Mrs. William W. Orne, says that Jona- than D wight told him there was but one clock in the village in 1753, and that people used to call at Josiah Dwight's to see it, and wait a long time to hear it strike. There were then but two chaises in town, horseback riding being the common mode of travel- ing. Springfield was a three days' journey to Boston, until stages were established, when the distance was accomplished in one day, " to the great amazement of the public." The aristocratic snuff-box had pene- trated numerously to the Connecticut, and by the time this century began, snuff-taking was a very prev- alent evil. The only piano in the village, in 1810, was owned by David Ames, and James Dwight had one in 1822, and Mrs. Rev. Breck boasted of the first carpet. At the church, the leader of the choir would start the tune by a preliminary toot on the square music-box, the size of a common hand Bible, with an aperture in one corner for a mouth-piece, and a slide below to regulate the key. Colonel Solomon Warriner was leader for forty- two years, beginning 1801, barring one break of five years. He sat in the gallery, back of the congregation. The " second treble " was on his right, and the tenor on his left ; the " first treble " were scattered all along the north gallery, and the 36 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. bass opposite. Eoberts, a Hartford music teacher, consolidated the choir, bringing them where they are now. The first rocking skates were sokl by Ely, of West Springfield, where the boys on this side of the river went with their spare change to buy them. Doctor Chauncey Brewer, when young, was a fine skater, and once, when at Yale College, while darting over the ice, he came to a broad opening, and is said to have saved his life by making a thirty feet jump. In his old age he retained great vitality, and would work in the garden awhile, then come in and read his Bible, do a little more work, then return to Bible and pipe. Colonel Thomas Dwight once discovered a leak in his stock of butter. Suspecting a certain gardener, he invited him into the office, under peculiar circum- stances, and heated up the room ; soon sweat, then butter, came running down the fellow's face, and on lifting his hat, Mr. Dwight found butter in too large quantities for hair oil. This story is told in the " Introduction to the American Common School Reader and Speaker," by William Russell, who may have come to Springfield after it. Springfield is emi- nent for furnishing educators, especially in the matter of college presidents. Among them are President Burr, of Princeton, father of Aaron Burr, and de- scended from Jehu Burr, who owned the original town lot which the Worthingtons bought; President Hol- yoke, of Harvard, grandson of Elizur Holyoke ; Pres- SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 37 ident Hitchcock, of Amherst ; President Day, of Yale ; President Colton, of Carhsle, Pa. ; Dr. Wilham Harris, President of Columbia. Then the Dwights and Chaun- cies are represented by the Yale and Harvard presi- dents of that name. Jonathan Dwiglit once sharply told a clerk not to say " no " bluntly, when a customer asked for some- thing not in the store, but to suggest another article. Shortly afterward, a lady inquired for some cheese. " No, marm, we haven't any, but we have an excellent grindstone." It is said the fellow lived on with the impression that that remark was too Avitty for any- thing. This Dwiglit store was a great place for all the notables to assemble, and in those large, green painted arm-chairs, Judge Hooker, Doctor Frost, and others, debated by the hour. It was at one of these gatherings, and in a discussion on the Trinity, that somebody made the statement : " No one can make me believe that James and John and Edmund Dwiglit are equal to the old man." Mr. Peabody's church was born at these green chair discussions, and the ex- citement and family jars that followed are still re- membered. The accepted orthodoxy which remained by the common, dubbed the " N. S. E. W. " vane on the spire of the new church, as standing for " The New Society of Edified Wits." There were many queer looking things to be seen on the public roads in early days ; for instance, on a Sunday morning, a man on horseback, with his wife 38 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. sitting on a cushion or pillion behind him, having one arm about her Bible, and the other about her master, and clinging close to both. This was riding " pillion," and went out of style with leghorn bonnets. If a fellow happened to be riding in the opposite direction from the meeting-house, he was very liable, especially if he had something handsome on pillion, to find a tithingman's long pole across the road. One of the Lombards was, one Sunday, carrying a sick child in a shay to the doctor, when he was stoj)ped, and the in- fallible tithingman deciding that religion was suffering more than the child, compelled him to turn back toward home. CHAPTER III. FLIP DAYS IN SPRINGFIELD. That tippling was more common at the beginning of the century, than now, everybody knows. There was not a dealer in the village who did not keep dis- tilled spirits, and every hired man took his constitu- tional both in the fore and afternoon. There are per- sons now living, who have seen eleven hogsheads of liquor sold at the old Dwight store, on the corner of State street, before breakfast. This was when the store had seven branch houses, in as many surround- ing villages. Not a social gathering or gander party, not a marriage feast of parson's or deacon's daughter, not even a Sunday in the months with an " r " in, but there was a goodly show of wine or flip. When Rev. Mr. Osgood was settled, in 1809, he had an ordination ball. If there was " no flip nor nothing," then it was the exception. There is no doubting the fact, with all our sins and high living, we are a more temperate people than we used to be, and our visions of the good old times might not be so enchanting, if they had the historical number of rum casks in them. Rev. Mr. Ballintine, of Westfield, gives in his diary the articles 40 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. sent in for his claug-bter's wecldino; feast. In the hst are half a dozen gallons of rum, and as many of brandy. Among the other articles is mentioned flour, suet, butter, two pigs, a " loyn of mutton," veal, fowls, cranberries, apples, cabbages, potatoes, etc., etc. He adds that a '' half Johannes " was given him as a fee, and he gave it to the bride. Rev. Stephen Wil- liams, of Longmeadow, in referring to his ordination feast, says he is afraid they were merrier than they ought to have been. It was customary for the parishioner, when the minister called, to set out a bottle of rum, and noth- ing less than this, except among the poor. It is told of an up-river minister, that he was once highly incensed, because one brother on wdiom he called, of- fered him a mug of cider, instead of the rum bottle. It was accepted as an insult, and was doubtless in- tended for one. Before 1825. habits of drinking were accompanied with very free social customs. Much formality there was, to be sure, but, among the young folks, impromptu parties were frequent. A couple of young men would propose a ride to Chicopee, to get flip. In twenty minutes the horses would be hitched, and, stopping a moment for the girls, who would appear at once, — no pull-backs in their programme or their dress, — off they would go for the Chico- pee tavern. All this is a lost art, and, now-a-days, the average " feller," in arranging a ride with a girl, allows three days to get her invited, and has SPKINGFIELD MEMORIES. 41 to wear a red ribbon in his button-hole, into the bargain. FHp drinking was not confined to a few. The children and all, would warm their noses after church with it, and everybody knows it is made of much beer, little rum and sugar, and some hot poker. Most families had a " brewin " each week, and flip irons were " amazin' plenty." Drunkenness in Jefferson's and Monroe's time, was common. In 1829, the best French brandy was three dollars a gallon, and rum fifty cents. The standard of temperance was lower, and he who would have then been called a moderate drinker, would now be in danger of padlocks and things. In 1825, temperance societies were first formed, and the elder and more moral names of Spring- field were quoted against the movement, just as they were Avhen the young folks wanted to warm the meeting-house. But when they found it wasn't a sin to hear the word of God with warm ears, and that moral force is better for the drinking community than police force, both religion and temperance went up. CHAPTER IV. SPEINGFIELD TEADE HALF A CENTUEY AGO. MoDEKN Springfield was born with the peace of the war of 1812. In the re-action from embargoes and war, from 1814 to 1825, there was a general honse- cleaning and business re-adjustment. The old tavern site was cleared off for a Common, a church and court-house built by the side of it, and another church (Unitarian), down Main street, Union and Court streets were opened, the river bridge, that had been swept away by a flood, was restored (1818), a line of boats was established between the village and Hartford, connecting with Boston and New York schooners, neighboring water-powers were utilized, many me- chanics and artisans were called in, who became resi- dents, and the Weekly Siwingfield Eepuhlican was started, which insured the place a future. In num- bers, Springfield was slow of growth, until the open- ing of the new " Bay Path " of rail and steam in 1839, when it put on a spurt, and, in 1852, took out a license to sport mayors and debts. The larger in- fluence of Northampton had forced away Springfield's share in the county court sessions, and such business SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 43 all came to be clone up the river. For, although the Pynchons, Blisses, Brewers, Dwights, and Chapins, were favorably known, they did not have the wide reputation of the Northampton Edwardses, Dwights, Strongs, Pomeroys, and Clarks; so that a friendly break in the famdy of the River Gods was inevitable, and, in 1812, Springfield became the " capital " of the bran new county of Hampden. So progressive was the spirit of the place, that the year previous a meet- ing w^as held in Doctor Osgood's meeting-house, in favor of foreign missions. Many pronounced it a '' dangerous and hopeless enterprise." As far back as 1810, the approaching clash of the old and new was suggested, when it was proposed to put stone bridges over the town brook, in place of wooden ones. A monstrous extravagance ! " The Worthingtons and Brewers had crossed on wood, and were we better than they ? " The Zulu heathen says the same thing to the missionary who advocates an upright door to his hut. " My father and grandfather have crawled on their knees through that hole, and so can I." The argument, however, did not carry Springfield. The best exponent of the local thrift of that time, is found in the D wight store on the corner of State and Main streets. Beginning before the Revolution, when the business center was a mile or more away, it grew to be not only the 'change of the town, but the largest Massachusetts importing house out of Boston, 44 SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. even rivaling many houses in the capitaL Josiah Dwight started it, and it was continued under the firm names of J. & J. Dwight, J. Dwight & Son, and J. & E. Dwight. The most business was done from after the war until 1822, when James Dwight, the greatest merchant of them all, died. From this time, the changes of the firm were as follows: — Day, Brewer & Dwight (Benjamin Day, J. Brewer, J. S. Dwight), Dwight, Brewer & Dwight (J. S. Dwight, J. Brewer, Henry Dwight), J. S. Dwight, then Homer Foot & Co., 1831, (now corner State and Main streets,) the latter being the legitimate successors of that fa- mous mercantile house. It was the policy of the house, as fast as its clerks learned the business, to start branch stores in the neighboring towns. Of these there were seven, — one at Westfield, North- ampton, Greenfield, South Hadley — at the canal, — Belchertown, Thompsonville and Chester. The one at Westfield was under the charge of Robert Whit- ney ; at Northampton, under J. D. Whitney; and located at Greenfield, South Hadley, Thompsonville, Chester, were Lyman Kendall, Josiah Bardwell, James Brewer and William Wade respectively. All the goods, passing through the Springfield head-quarters, made that an important exchange place. Venerable men now living, tell about seeing a wall of woolen goods twelve to fourteen feet high, disappear in one day, and a little matter of eleven hogsheads of liquor vanish before breakfast, some of it not going to out- SPRINGFIELD MEMORIES. 45 of-town parties, either. The old firm of J. & J. D wight had potash and pearlash works at Wilbraham, and a distillery opposite Josiah's house on South Main street, where cattle were kept to eat the grain, and where people in all the region round, went for " empt- ins " you know, so that their rye bread might be the best, — simply this and nothing more. Pretty much everything was kept at these early country stores, — Turks island salt, steel knitting-pins, Jamaica spirits, hum-hums, jeans and fustians, bake- pans, plane-irons, japanned waiters and mugs, pig-tail tobacco, cherry rum, etc. The Ely store at West Springfield made it a point to please the women in getting the divinest fashions, and it was next to im- possible to keep them from taking a constitutional walk over the bridge, and doing some trading. Many fine cattle in the early part of the century, were driven from Chicopee to the Boston market. On the pine plain the farmers made their own clothing, which was of stout woolen and tow cloth. The Dwight house and its branches, did much to develop the Chicopee water-power. In 1823, the Boston and Springfield Manufacturing Company was incorporated, with a capital of $500,000, $$$^^$$$$$$!i>^^i;^i^^^